So now, I’m continuing my efforts to document my journey back into the world of animation.

Community

I was very excited about the first day. Not only will I have a second chance to get into the career I’ve dreamed of since I was 12, I get to spend every day with people who share that dream. I think that’s what was missing the last time I was at school, the people around me didn’t take it as seriously as I did, not seriously enough to get a job, and in some cases, not seriously enough to get through the program.

There is an expectation that half of the learning we do during the next 8 months will be from our fellow students which is why we are encouraged to do all our work in the labs and not at home. Even the second year’s have been encouraged to be accessible for any questions we might have along the way.

Projects

We heard the description and saw examples of our two major projects for this program.

The first is a 10 second “bumper” or interstitial, which is the “We’ll be right back message used to introduce the commercial break from the Saturday morning cartoons of my childhood. We are to use an actual toy to model from and whatever music and audio we like because the final outcome isn’t meant for resale or festival submission.

I’ve got my toy chosen, it’s in the picture above. And I think I’ve got my storyline, but I’ll wait until it’s been approved before I post it.

The second project is our final 1 minute film. The main requirements are:

1 character
1 location
1 minute in length

I’ve got a character that I’ve been picking at since 2004 with a basic story concept that might work. And I’ve got a variation on the story I wanted to tell with her that can be adapted to 1 minute in length, I think. I can post more about that after I’ve had a chance to run it by my instructor.

Outside of class

On the recommendation of my animation teacher, I took a trip to Toronto on Friday afternoon to watch Song of the Sea at the TIFF Lightbox. Well worth the effort, despite travelling on my own. A beautiful film, done in 2D but with watercolour painted textures. As good or better than The Secret of Kells! Read about my experience here.

On Saturday, I decided that I would sit down and watch The Art of Character Design with David Colman. I have owned the DVD for several years, but put off watching it because I didn’t feel I had a way to directly apply it to what I was working on.

In order to avoid that pitfall, (oh, I can watch it anytime, which means I never get around to it), I decided to announce to my classmates that I would be watching it on the big screen in one of our classrooms.

I had four classmates turn out and we watched all but the final drawing. I think I’ll finish it up next Saturday and grab some other material I’ve been putting off as well to share.